GB players win four medals in Spain

GB players picked up four medals at the Para Table Tennis Spanish Open in El Prat de Llobregat with Rajan Waterman and Nathan Thomas taking silver and bronze respectively in the men’s class 10 singles and then combining to win silver in the men’s class 10 team event while 17 year old Daniel Bullen took bronze in the men’s class 5 singles.

Waterman, the class 10 National champion from Bristol, fought back from 2-0 down in his singles final against Krisztian Gardos to level at 2-2 but had to settle for silver after the Austrian took the deciding set 11-4. Waterman and Thomas, from Cardiff, earned their team silver medal with wins over fellow GB player Craig Allen and his Portugese partner Decio Dinis Da Silva, Chile and a Spanish/Chilean combination but lost out on the gold after a 3-1 loss to Gardos and the Russian Ivan Karpov.

Daniel Bullen Nat Champs 2015 2GB Pathway player Bullen, from St Neots, registered wins over the American Eric Pattison and the Spaniard Jorge Benavente in his round-robin singles to win his first international medal.

“It has been a good tournament for me,” said Bullen. “It’s probably been the best I’ve played - I’ve had some good wins and continued to improve as the tournament went on, especially against the number two seed from Spain. After losing to him comfortably 3-0 I played him the next day and was much stronger and more focused in losing in four close sets. I’m now looking forward to Romania next week.”